I THINK SO

"Many people would sooner die than think. In fact they do."

Bertrand Russell, 20th century British logician/philosopher.

Something to think about, no?

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?

"To reflect is to disturb one's thoughts."

Jean Rostand (1894-1977) French biologist and philosopher.

Which you might see as a problem if you feel your thoughts are always valid.

They're not, particularly the ones you have without the benefit of personal reflection and validation from others that what you think is right.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS?

"Each thought that is welcomed and recorded is a nest egg by the side of which more will be laid."

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American naturalist/poet/philosopher.

"Recorded" meaning remembered.

That we don't at least file somewhere in the back of our minds will often, unfortunately, be lost forever.

You can't and need not remember everything; only that you should.

I KNOW THIS MUCH

"Imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of our life."

Simone Weil (1910-1943) French Philosopher

Don't know how Ms. Weil would know that, and "three quarters" does sound like a convenient number regardless.

But I do believe the concept is true.

What I imagine added to what I erroneously believe to be true is a big number.

What about you?

LEST YOU THINK OTERWISE

"Thought makes every thing fit for use."

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) U.S. poet/essayist/lecturer.

As a seed can grow to become a tree so too can a thought evolve into something great.

However, in the beginning, each is only a suggestion of what it might become.

WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?

"Reading is equivalent to thinking with someone else's head instead of with one's own."

Arthur Schopenhauer 

Late 18th.early 19th century German philosopher

While specific to reading I believe the thought ("thinking with someone else's head") is valid beyond just what we read.

It is something we all should strive to do more often.

IT SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME

"The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot."

Salvador Dalí

20th century Spanish surrealist painter

Which is to suggest, you don't need to share every thought you have no matter how interesting, or poetic, it may seem to you.

Less is often more.

HOW WILL YOU SPEND YOURS?

"Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you."

Carl Sandburg

Late 19th/early 20th century American poet

One more I probably shouldn't but nonetheless will quibble with a bit.

Time is the "coin" of our lives but way too many of us are not determining how it will be spent.

We unthinkingly acquiesce to the wishes of others.

If you are going to "spend" the most valuable asset you have, one that cannot be replenished, make sure it is you who decides what you will get in return.

OUR INNER 2ND OPINION

"Thinking is the talking of the soul with itself."

Plato

4th century BC Greek philosopher

And we don't always think before we act.

I wonder what our souls think about that.

IF I CAN THINK IT YOU CAN (HOPEFULLY) DO IT

"A society made up of individuals who were all capable of original thought would probably be unendurable."

Henry Louis Mencken

Late 19th/early 20th century American journalist

A company as well.

Somebody has to actually do what the original thinkers conceive.

Free To . . . ?

"Surely there is grandeur in knowing that in the realm of thought, at least you are without a chain; that you have the right to explore all heights and depths; that there are no walls or fences, nor prohibited places, nor sacred corners in all the vast expanse of thought."

Robert Green Ingersoll

19th century American politician

True, but do you?

The Art Of Business Change

"No art can be noble which is incapable of expressing thought, and no art is capable of expressing thought which does not change."

John Ruskin

19th century English art critic

Business is, above all, about expressing thought.

Done well, which is not always the case, business is art.

And those companies that do well at both experience more positive change than those who don't.

Ok, Now I'm Worried!

"Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety."

Plato

4th century BC Greek philosopher

We'll need to parse this one a bit.

I can think of countless things in both my professional and personal lives where (as it turned out) I had been unnecessarily overly anxious.

Some but not all of that could have been avoided and the trick is to decide what is and is not "worthy of great anxiety".

But maybe Plato was the smart guy we all think he was and was just observing that great anxiety is rarely worth the effort, while at the same time understanding it is also too often unavoidable.

Not knowing if that was true makes me very anxious.

A Person Of Action Or Indecision?

"A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking."

Unknown

One of those "brain candy" statements easily refuted, and still, there is a lesson in this for us all.

While at some point you have to act, all too often we act first, think later, based on half-truths, assumptions and too little information.

Planning is Thinking

"Many people would rather die than think. In fact they do."

Bertrand Russel
20th century British philosopher/mathematician

I can directly link (far too) many of my failures to a lack of thought prior to taking action, and I would say the same is true for you as well.

But first, I want to think about that some more.